Before getting Midway's NHL Hitz 2002 (sorry, I refuse to put a stupid hyphen in the year), the only hockey game I'd ever played was Wayne Gretzsky's 3D Hockey waaaaay back when on the N64. I remember liking that game okay, but otherwise my elderly (college-trounced) brain doesn't really register anything about it.

Soooo, that's what I brought to Hitz. Oh yeah, and I'm a pretty big fan of NFL Blitz on N64. Hitz is a pretty faithful analogue to that game, with a few key differences and plenty of improvements that you'd expect from a much newer game. For one thing, Hitz is faster paced...you don't see constant replays full of pro wrestling moves like in Blitz, simply because hockey doesn't come to a standstill every fifteen seconds like football does. It's just as brutal though, once you figure out the controls pretty well. There's a dedicated button (X) for checking, and the hit will vary depending on your speed, the opponent's speed, your locations, and whether you use turbo. A turbo-fied body check against the wall looks and sounds incredibly painful...and often, the victim's helmet will fly off and/or he will be shoved right through the glass into the crowd. His lost helmet will actually stay on the ice and get knocked around by the players, and it can provide an interesting distraction if you're not yet used to seeing the puck.

Shooting and passing both work very well, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how complicated even a simple pass can be. You can't just keep hitting A and expect the puck to glide problem-free from player to player...you'd better make sure there's a clear line to your teammate, or that thing is getting intercepted. That goes for passing from behind the net too, and also for shooting. What I've learned about hockey from Hitz is that you have to always be very aware of where things are on the ice.

Is Hitz very accurate to the real thing? I honestly couldn't tell you, but my friend from out West says the team and player stats seem to be pretty much right on, although he pointed out that you can't see any players' mullets coming out of their helmets during the game. That's a damn shame if there ever was one.

Otherwise, I'm very satisfied with the graphics. The player models don't seem to be extremely detailed, but they are all quite unique. The animation is very good, with tons of celebrations and similar types of motion-captured goodness. My favorite visual element is the crowd though...this is the first sports game I've ever seen with a fully polygonal crowd, and the effect is marvelous. Each person looks approximately like a 3D model from the N64, but there are hundreds of them and they're all individually animated...plus they react to what's happening in the game! It's a totally sweet effect that will hopefully show up in a lot more games from now on.

Best of all, Hitz is a lot of fun to play, and it naturally lends itself to multiplayer. I've only done two-player so far, but it's a lot better than fighting the computer (who IMO is way too hard...I need to look for a difficulty setting). Oh yeah, and playing Exhibition games (including multiplayer) earns you "credits", which you can use to buy all kinds of insane crap at the store. Fantasy arenas, custom player heads, and heritage jerseys...there's stuff in there to suit both casual players and hardcore fans. Good job Midway and Black Box.